Read: Job 15-18
Eliphaz attacks Job accusing him of being a know-it-all. He mocks him asking him if he has heard the secrets of God and is keeping all of it to himself. He wonders how a mortal man such as Job can claim to be clean before a holy God. This is the argument of grace and law. By the law, Eliphaz is right but Job is seeing into the concept of grace way before his time.
Job calls them miserable comforters and wonders where they got all their material. If he was in their place, he would encourage them and help them bear their grief. He maintains his thought that God has turned him over to this trial.
Bidad speaks up and defends himself and his friends. He wonders how long Job is going to hold to his doctrine and not listen to their wisdom. Bildad gives a description of the wicked man hoping Job will see himself. He thinks that what Job is experiencing is his own fault. He concludes that this man does not know God.
It is a dangerous thing to judge another’s salvation no matter what their life looks like. Job’s life looked like he was living under a curse, but he wasn’t. God has given us the spirit of discernment to know the difference between good and evil and the devil and God. If Job’s friends had possessed this gift they would have kept their mouth’s shut. That is always what we should do when we don’t know the answer. Speculating is not God. God is exact and perfect. Sometimes his purposes are hidden from us but they will be revealed if we ask and wait. Sometimes it takes years to see the “whys” of what happened. But, we can trust in a loving, and perfect God.
Lord, thank you for your perfect ways. Grant us discernment and put a watch over our mouths that we only speak your words.
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